Although recognized as a vulnerable population,
there is no national population size estimate for sex
workers in South Africa. A rapid sex worker enumeration
exercise was undertaken in twelve locations across the
country based on principles of participatory mapping and
Wisdom of the Crowd. Sites with a range of characteristics
were selected, focusing on level of urbanisation, trucking,
mining and borders. At each site, sex worker focus groups
mapped local hotspots. Interviews with sex workers at
identified hotspots were used to estimate the numbers and
genders of sex workers working in each. Estimates provided
in the literature were combined with enumeration
exercise results to define assumptions that could be applied
to a national extrapolation. A working estimate was
reached of between 131,000 and 182,000 sex worker in
South Africa, or between 0.76 and 1 % of the adult female
population. The success of the exercise depended on integral
involvement of sex worker peer educators and strong
ethical considerations.